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Ephesians 3:1-13

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Ephesians 1-2

Ephesians 3-4

Ephesians 5-6

Listen to Next Week's Passage

Ephesians 3:14-21

​I have received a lot of questions regarding Dwell in the Word. One of the biggest questions is what dwelling in a book looks like. It is because of questions like those that I decided it would be a good idea to put up a day by day example of what we mean by dwelling in a book. This plan amounts to 31 days for the book of Galatians. Following the same strategy for other books could give you a shorter or longer plan depending on the length of the book. This is a strategy that you can easily transpose to any of the other books using the same basic outline. At the end of this post you will find a PDF that you can download and print out so you can check off each day. We also have sheets of this 31 day schedule printed out for you in the Narthex at church. You can find them on the book giveaway table.

Time investment: 15-25 minutes per day. When you start out it will be significantly less than this. You can read the entire book of Galatians in less than 15 minutes. Where the time investment will come in is when you start writing out the book. I highly recommend you do not skip over writing out the book. It is a good way to absorb or "dwell" in the text. The readings in Exalting Jesus in Galatians will take between 15-20 minutes each day when you get to that step in the process.

You can continue to dwell in Galatians. We have more resources in the library and links to articles and teaching resources on the website. All resources in the library and on the website have been evaluated to ensure that they are in line with teachings of the historic Christian faith and the Reformed Confessions.

​One of the words that you may have seen on the Dwell in the Word card is "expositional". That word can be somewhat confusing but the concept is relatively simple. When someone preaches through the Bible and explains what it means through the flow of the text they are known as an expository preacher. An expositional commentary is a Bible commentary that is basically made up of modified sermons of this type. These types of commentaries are useful for both pastors and lay persons as they dig into what the text means in a real practical way. You will not find much mention Greek or Hebrew text in an expositional commentary. What you will find is good explanations that are often accented by illustrations just like they would be in a good sermon.

I recommend that you look into reading along with one of these commentaries as you dwell in one of the books we have selected resources for. One of the commentary series that we have selected is the Christ-Centered Exposition Series. You can find these in the church library for Mark, Galatians, Ephesians, and Philippians. These commentaries are great for devotional reading as they cover small chunks of the text and explain it in a Christ-Centered way. One of the best things about this series is that the Kindle versions regularly go on sale and you can get them for $2.99 (regularly $7.99-$9.99). Coupled with your favorite Bible app you can have a great devotional tool to dwell in a book of the Bible. Above I've spliced together an image of my favorite Bible app (Logos) on the left and the Kindle app with the Exalting Jesus in Mark commentary to the right of it. Each section of the Mark commentary only covers a few verses and you can read the teaching on it in a mere 4-6 swipes of the pages on the Kindle app. A great way to have a study tool with you everywhere you go on your smart phone or tablet.

When you decide to dwell in your book with a commentary I recommend that you go to the commentary first to see how many verses you are going to read. The commentaries make this pretty clear. I have circled an example from Exalting Jesus in Mark in the image to the left. Read the verses in your Bible and then read from the commentary. That's it. Using an "expostional" commentary sounds like it should be complicated, but that is really all there is to it.

We have an assortment of commentaries available in the library on the Dwell in the Word shelf. In addition to the Christ-Centered series, you will find commentaries from the Reformed Expository series, the St. Andrews Expositional series, and the Lection Continua series. All of them are good commentaries that approach scripture from a Reformed perspective and provide excellent, practical insight into the text of scripture.

If you have any questions on the commentaries or anything you read in them, don't forget that I am always willing to talk with you about what you are reading. I would love to hear what you are experiencing as you Dwell in the Word.

​For Dwell in the Word our theme is "Pick a book. Dig deep." This is one part of a blog series to help you understand the different ideas that we have offered as ways to "dig deep" into the book you choose.

If you are anything like me you tend to find yourself lacking focus when reading. My mind does pretty well for a few minutes and then it races off to think about all the things I either need to do or have forgotten to do. A little over a year ago I discovered a series of books entitled "Journibles". They were books with the title of a book of the Bible on the front but the book was made up of mostly blank, lined pages. The idea was that you would write out the book of the Bible to have a written copy of that book of the Bible in your own handwriting. Journibles also have some questions in them for you to answer about the text you are writing out.

I bought one of these and found that it was very beneficial to write out the text because it helped me to really take in and absorb the text in a way I didn't get with regular reading. Then a light went on for me. I didn't need to pay more than $10 each for these books in order to write out the text of scripture. I could get a cheap notebook from any store and write it out in them. While it did not contain some of the questions to answer I still found it to be an excellent way to study the Bible and get a better grasp on what I was reading.

Some tips for trying this method of digging deep into the book you have chosen.

Start off with just a paragraph or two. In 2017 most of us are not used to writing anything out by hand anymore. It will take a while to get your hand in shape so that you can write out more than a few words.

Use your favorite translation. While most English translations are really good they do have a distinct style to them. If you read from a particular translation all the time it will help you not have to look quite so often at what to write next because you know how the translation "talks".

Get a nice notebook and a nice gel pen. A good gel pen with a comfort grip goes a long way because the gel ink looks nice and they are easy to write smoothly with. A nice notebook or journal will make you value what you are doing more.

Keep the notebook and pen with your Bible in a visible place. Seeing them together will not only remind you but motivate you because you will want to accomplish the task of writing the whole book out.

Leave yourself a significant margin on the edge of the paper. This gives you good space to write your own comments or questions if you have any while you are writing.

It is my hope that you will find this way of digging deep into scripture valuable and maybe even make it a lifelong habit.

In 2017 we want to challenge our congregation to "Dwell in the Word". It is common that people often start a new year with intentions to increase their Bible reading. Often this means that they start off in Genesis and Exodus doing pretty well with the stories that those books tell. Then the busyness of life begins to settle in again after the start of the year and it becomes more difficult to continue. On top of it all as you get to the end of Exodus and hit Leviticus and Numbers getting through some books of the Bible can be hard.

It is with this struggle in mind that we bring "Dwell in the Word". Instead of trying to read for volume this year we want to encourage everyone to absorb and get to know a book or two of the Bible really well. Our theme for "Dwell in the Word" is "Pick a book. Dig deep." You can pick any book of the Bible to dwell in but there are seven suggestions for you. For these seven books, we will help you out by providing resources that you can access to help you dig into what you are reading. These are curated lists with resources that include overviews of the book, expository commentaries (basically a book made up of sermons on that book of the Bible), and resources you can listen to on that book of the Bible. These will include resources that you can buy or resources that are available in the church library.

Here are the seven books we are encouraging you to dwell in along with a short description of that book:Mark: A fast-paced gospelActs: The History of the Early ChurchRomans: Justification by FaithGalatians: Works vs FaithEphesians: Grace in the Christian LifePhilippians: Imitating the Humble ChristHebrews: God has spoken in His Son

We also have suggestions on how you can "Dig Deep" into the book or books that you pick:Read the book.Read it again in one sitting.Read it slowly.Read it in another translation.Write out the book.Listen to the book.Memorize a part of the book.Use parts of the book in your prayers.Read the book along with a good, expository commentary on it.Listen to a teaching series on the book.

Many of the resources will be available to check out from the library. There will also be posts with links to resources here on the blog. We will print out some lists to have available too. The lists will be curated and updated regularly as resources are discovered so keep checking the blog posts. There will be a special category for "Dwell in the Word" so you can find the posts easily.

​We encourage you to pick a book and dig deep. After you have spent time dwelling in a book pick another one. May you be richly blessed by your study of God's holy Word.

Here are recommended resources for you if you have selected to dwell in the Gospel of Mark. The books listed below are in the church library or you can click on the name of the book to purchase it from Amazon. The links that are displayed after the books section will take you to the website that hosts the content.

​This list will be curated and added to over time as new resources are purchased or discovered.

Mark 1-8

Mark 9-16

Here are recommended resources for you if you have selected to dwell in the book of Acts. The books listed below are in the church library or you can click on the name of the book to purchase it from Amazon. The links that are displayed after the books section will take you to the website that hosts the content.

​This list will be curated and added to over time as new resources are purchased or discovered.

Acts 1-10

Acts 11-20

Acts 21-28

Here are recommended resources for you if you have selected to dwell in the book of Romans. The books listed below are in the church library or you can click on the name of the book to purchase it from Amazon. The links that are displayed after the books section will take you to the website that hosts the content.

​This list will be curated and added to over time as new resources are purchased or discovered.

Romans 1-16

Here are recommended resources for you if you have selected to dwell in the book of Galatians. The books listed below are in the church library or you can click on the name of the book to purchase it from Amazon. The links that are displayed after the books section will take you to the website that hosts the content.

​This list will be curated and added to over time as new resources are purchased or discovered.

Galatians 1-6

Here are recommended resources for you if you have selected to dwell in the book of Philippians. The books listed below are in the church library or you can click on the name of the book to purchase it from Amazon. The links that are displayed after the books section will take you to the website that hosts the content.

​This list will be curated and added to over time as new resources are purchased or discovered.